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Joe Gibbs says top priority is extending Joey Logano's NASCAR deal

June 29, 2012

Joey Logano won the Cup race at Pocono on June 10, and his team owner wants him back next year. Photo by LAT Photographic

Amid news of a contract extension for Denny Hamlin and speculation swirling around Matt Kenseth's possible arrival at Joe Gibbs Racing next year, NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs said on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway that his top priority now is re-signing Joey Logano.

Logano, 22, who is in a contract year, has five NASCAR Nationwide Series victories and one Sprint Cup Series win to his credit this year and has begun to blossom in his pairing with first-year Cup crew chief Jason Ratcliff.

"We're working real hard right now on extending him and his relationship with us," Gibbs said on Friday after the drivers' meeting for Saturday night's Quaker State 400. "We've had a great relationship—signed him when he was 15. We've got a lot invested in Joey. I think right now he's stepping up, and we want him to be with us."

Asked whether sponsor Home Depot would continue to be part of the equation, Gibbs told the NASCAR Wire Service, "I think part of what we've got going on with us right now—there's a lot going on. So the things I talked about . . . Joey, we want to get that done. Everything else is kind of up in the air for us right now."

It's fair to say that sponsor alignments are in a state of flux at Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs said that inking a new deal for Hamlin was a separate issue from extending the deal of Hamlin's sponsor, FedEx.

"It doesn't have anything to do with FedEx—it's just Denny," Gibbs said, but that doesn't preclude the possibility of FedEx returning to Hamlin's car.

Gibbs was mum on the Kenseth rumors, but he left the door open for a future announcement.

"I don't think I should spend time talking about that right now," Gibbs said. "The timing's not there for us to talk about that. We've got a lot of decisions that need to be made, and we're working through that right now."

Kenseth, the Cup points leader, announced earlier this week that he would not return to Roush Fenway Racing and that he has a new deal in place for 2013, with the Gibbs team the clear front-runner for the role of Kenseth's new employer. Kenseth, however, has refused to talk about specifics.

Hamlin is eighth in the series standings with two Cup wins this season. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota confirmed on Saturday on his Twitter feed at 6:51 p.m. Eastern that the extension was a done deal.